Etymology:

This is a saying from 19th when ships in the deep oceans went extremely close to other ships or something else that could’ve sunk them. These surely were extremely risky situations and were survived from just narrow escapes. Whenever a ship touched the bottom but was able to survive then that was considered to be a situation of “touch and go”. This phrase is also related to the horse-drawn carriages and their narrow escapes from collide with another coach. Now, this phrase is used to describe the critical and risky situations.